1. Technical Field
The present technology relates to a tire/wheel assembly and particularly relates to a tire/wheel assembly by which air flow around the tire and the wheel can be improved.
2. Related Art
Tire/wheel assemblies are formed by assembling a pneumatic tire on a wheel that is joined to a vehicle. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-82733A describes vehicle-use tire and a wheel on which the vehicle-use tire is mounted where a face substantially parallel to a face perpendicular to a rotational axis is provided from a side wall portion to a bead portion on at least a vehicle outer side of tire side surfaces on both sides.
Additionally, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2010-006135A describes a vehicle-use wheel constituted by fitting a wheel disk in a wheel rim, the wheel disk including a concentrically formed hub mounting portion formed from an inner side round region that joins with a hub of an axle, a design portion formed from an annular region outward of the hub mounting portion, and an annular protrusion portion protruding toward a front surface side between the hub mounting portion and the design portion. In the wheel disk, an annular protrusion portion that protrudes toward the front surface side is omitted from the protrusion portion; a plurality of dimple-shaped bowl-like curved portions, which are recessed in a bowl-shape at the front surface side and protrude from a back surface side, is disposed in a staggered lattice manner in the design portion. Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2007-137340A describes a vehicle-use wheel including a cylindrical rim and a spoke extending from an inner circumferential surface to a central portion of the rim. In this vehicle-use wheel, a small turbulence generating means is formed in the inner circumferential surface of the rim and/or an outer side portion of the spoke.
Traveling performance of a vehicle needs to be enhanced. Thus, various performances of tire/wheel assemblies also need to be enhanced, including fuel economy performance of tire/wheel assemblies.